Chapter 62

  One of the two people in the sleeping bags suddenly sat up, screaming and thrashing around as if he was fending off invisible ehe persoo him, who turned out to be a young woman, suddenly emerged from her sleeping bag as well, awakened by the noise.

  Instantly on high alert, Thomas and Kaleb jumped to their feet, spinning around and raising their ons, unsure what was going on. The mahrashing around dispying signs of not being fully awake yet. He swung one of his arms in a wide arc, almost hitting the young woman on his left.

  “Geez, Erick, calm down,” she excimed. “It’s just a dream. Just a bad dream. You’re safe. Nothing’s gonna hurt you.”

  Her voice seemed to have a calming effe him, and Erick finally came to his senses. He stopped screaming and filing his arms. He sed his surroundings, turning his head to look at the womao him, then at the two men by the windoere still gripping their guns. He then surveyed the dark room, a perplexed expression on his face as if he couldn’t apprehend where he was or how he’d ended up in that pce.

  For a moment, his gaze lingered on the shadows at the ter of the room, peering into the darkness. Although it felt as if he was staring right at him, Jake k wasn’t possible. If Erick’s limited human sight could dis him in the darkness, he would already have begun panig again.

  Finally, Erick’s eyes settled on the young woman sitting in her sleeping bag.

  “See?” she said. “Everything’s fine. You are among friends. Nothing to worry about.”

  “I’m sorry for waking you, Averie,” he said in an apologetie. “I was having a nightmare.”

  “Figured as much,” Averie said, nodding.

  Erick’s gaze shifted to the two men standing by the windows on his right.

  “Sorry for startling you guys too,” he said with a lopsided grin. “You stop pointing yuns at me. I’m not gonna turn into a monster if that’s what you think.”

  “You scared the hell out of me, man,” Thomas said, l his on. “I almost fug shot you.”

  “We were lucky there weren’t any mutants nearby,” Kaleb said, peering out the window. “Otherwise, they would already have swarmed this pce.”

  “I saw David in my dream,” Erick said quietly, looking at his hands in his p. “I withe moment when that mutant jumped from the shadows. Only in my dream, it was me who got attacked, not David.”

  Averie gently pced a reassuring hand on his shoulder. For a moment, Erick remaiill, theurned around and reached for one of the bags lined along the wall behind him.

  “What are you doing?” Averie asked.

  Erick was rummaging through the tents of his rucksatil he found what he was looking for. He retrieved some kind of bundle from his pack. Whatever it was, it was rge, tightly ed in a dark thick strip of fabric.

  “What is this?” Averie asked.

  “You’ll see,” Erick replied as he began to peel the fabric away from the item.

  Both Jake and Averie watched with i as he was uning the item. As it turned out, it was a huge mana able, resembling a crystal in its shape. It was almost a foot ih—rger than any other mana ables Jake had ever seen. Whe coil of the thick dark fabric fell away, the magical energy stored within the crystal cast a bluish glow over the four survivors and the wall behind them, illuminating the entire se of the room where they were situated. Even from where he was croug, Jake could tell there lenty of magical energy stored ihe item.

  “Wow,” Averie excimed, staring i the mana able. “It’s sht.”

  “That’s why I usually keep it ed in fabric,” Erick expined. “It gives off so much light it easily attract mutants at night.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Averie said, staring at the crystal in Erick’s hands.

  “Yes, it is,” he replied.

  “I’ve never seen such a rge mana item,” Kaleb said from his position at one of the windows. “What is it?”

  “It’s called a mana crystal,” Erick replied. “It’s a rare mana able.”

  “How much mana does it hold?” Thomas asked.

  “Five thousand.”

  “Wow, that’s a lot!”

  Jake was impressed too. As a mutant, he spent a lot of time sc the city for any mana ables, but he’d never ced upon a mana crystal before. That item must’ve been really rare. Acc to Erick, it held a whopping five thousand MP, which was even more than the amount of mana currently stored within him—over three thousand MP. Between that and the five thousand the mana crystal held, he could potentially unlock two or three of the abilities from the Geic Development Interface.

  “Why haven’t you absorbed the mana from it yet?” Thomas asked.

  “I ’t,” Erick replied.

  “Why?”

  “Because you o be at least level fifteen to do that. I learhat after sing the crystal with my PDA when I just found it. I tried to absorb the mana anyway, but nothing happened, of course.”

  “Guess you’ll have to wait until you level up to fifteen before you’re allowed to absorb the mana,” Averie said.

  “Yeah. Only I’m not gonna do that.”

  “Why not?” Averie said, a surprised look on her face.

  Erick lowered his gaze to the crystal he held in his hand.

  “Because it’s so beautiful it calms me,” Erick said, peering into the crystal. “When I’m stressed out, I take out the crystal and watch the energy danside of it. It has a soothing effee. It really helps me to calm my nerves in moments like this. I don’t know how I’d mahout it.”

  “Where did you find it?” Kaleb asked.

  “I don’t even remember. In one of the buildings, I guess. It happened a few days ago, before I eve you guys.”

  “Well, guess you were extremely lucky to find such a rare mana item.”

  Jake agreed with Kaleb. Such things didn’t lie around every er. The mere fact that he himself had never e across a mana crystal spoke volumes about the item’s rarity.

  That was why he nning to snatch the crystal from Erick’s hands. It might be a little cruel sidering the crystal helped Erick calm his nerves in stressful situations, but Jake couldn’t let such a great opportunity to get so much mana slip away.

  Sorry, buddy, but yonna have to get yourself aress buster.

  And Jake broke into a silent sprint toward the four survivors.